This guy was born in the south Tyrolean Alps in 1645 in Segno. His brilliance was recognized early and he was sent to school. When he was fifteen his father died. His family liquidated their land to keep him in school. (He had three sisters and no brothers so his sisters were probably taken care of by marriage… ?) He became very ill at one point and prayed to Saint Francis Xavier, promising that if he lived, he would ask for entrance into the Jesuit order and become a missionary. He recovered from his illness and set to work to fulfill that promise. He studied both for the priesthood and in preparation for life as a missionary.

Hoping for a spot as a missionary in China, he studied astronomy and mathematics. During his time at Ingolstadt he was the professor of mathematics and he taught himself to make astronomical instruments. After petitioning repeatedly to be sent to the missions he was finally appointed as a missionary and started for Cadiz in Spain. Among other adventures on this journey, begun in 1678, he sailed the Mediterranean, constantly afraid of pirates. As he reached Cadiz he saw on the horizon the great convoy of ships of Spain on which he had permission to take passage. He had missed his boat. He waited for two years to find new accommodations.

During this time a brilliant comet appeared in the sky. The Jesuits made many observations and our subject wrote about the comet. He was skilled at manufacturing astronomical observational tools and had permission to use this skill to finance his journey. While he waited he also taught mathematics.

Although his dream was to serve in China, he was sent to Mexico City and from there assigned to the Sonoran desert and the tribes that lived there. He spent thirty years as a missionary and died at Santa Maria Magdalena, a chapel he was in the process of dedicating.

Apart from his missionary work which was incredible he was responsible for bringing a strain of wheat to the area that changed life. White Sonoran wheat grew in the colder months and needed little water. It was so important that for a while this area produced enough to feed millions. When the Gila River was blocked off in the 1890’s this enterprise was destroyed. Wheat tortillas from the southwest are basically his baby.

He mapped his travels and proved that Baja California was not an island but a peninsula. Part of his work with respect to Baja California involved working out the distances over which trade was actually taking place. He was able to show that the Sonoran inhabitants were trading with the Pacific coast, because they had abalone shells. Abalone, both then and now, grow only on the Pacific coast and not at all in the Gulf of Baja.

I had heard of Father Eusebius Francesco Kino, but knew almost nothing about him except that he was a missionary in the American southwest. He took the name Francesco because of his great devotion to Saint Francis Xavier. I did not know that he was born in the South Tyrol, probably quite near winemakers in that region. He struggled for the Indians against the Spanish army, and although one of his greatest friends were killed in a native uprising he still argued in Mexico City, after a heroic and lengthy ride, that the uprising was originally the fault of the Spanish.

Father Kino was proposed for canonization and has been listed as Venerable. That is, he has passed the test of whether his life was one of heroic virtue and awaits two miracles for the titles, first of Blessed and then of Saint.

I found a great deal of information on this site devoted to him. http://padrekino.com